El-Zak Zaky seeks overhaul, re-orientation of military for constitutional role

LEADER of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria, otherwise known as Shiite, Sheikh Ibraheem El-Zak Zaky has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to overhaul the Nigerian military and make it peoples’ armed forces, rather than the current military that views the citizens as enemies.

El- Zakzaky also advised the new government in the country to re-constitute and embark on a re-orientation of the army in order not to inherit an army that lacks patriotism to the nation and citizenry.

Sheikh Zakzaky, speaking at the annual parade ceremony of the Islamic Movement Volunteer Guards (Khurras) attended by thousands of people, and which took place at the Zaria Polo ground, at the weekend, said the Nigerian military lacks courtesy and standard human relations in dealing with people, stressing, “the only thing it specializes in was to kill unarmed citizens in which it takes great pride.”

He argued that the Federal Government should not expect good results from the present disoriented military in defending the country against external aggression, settling dispute or crisis, adding, “For the Nigerian military, it is in itself an agent of crisis and destruction.”

Citing the unfortunate 2014 Quds Day massacre in which no fewer than 34 people were killed in Zaria, including three (3) of his children, El-Zak Zaky maintained that, “the Nigerian military exhibited high sense of wickedness, which also exposed them as the real Boko Haram,” alleging, “that day we saw the real faces of Boko Haram in their full gear and uniform, Book Haram was nothing but the government of ex-President Ebele Jonathan.”

Harping on the unacceptable action of the Nigerian Army, Zakzaky said that “ it was ridiculous and foolishness” how after the extra-judicial killings and torture, one Brigadier General Umama of the Zaria depot wrote a memo to the Army Headquarters indicating that the Nigerian military had won a war with no casualty and had captured prisoners of war and one ambulance as a proceeds of war.

“Nigerian military can be equated with wild beasts. Their actions have tarnished the prestige of the nation across the world. In the psyche of a Nigerian soldier, citizens have no right, but are enemies meant to be killed. The Nigerian soldier thinks he can do anything, having the license to kill and harass the citizens.”

He wondered how a top ranking military officer in Nigeria did not know the real definition of war, saying, “A war is a war between two armies of two sovereign nations.”

He alleged out that recruitment in the Nigerian Army was deliberately done on the orders of former President Jonathan while in office, against the quota system in Zamfara, Katsina, Kano and Jigawa states, where people from Delta State were recruited to answer names of indigenes of these states in order to actualize selfish and dangerous agenda.

“Let there be a screening exercise on every soldier to show his local government of origin,” he insisted.

The Islamic leader also narrated the repeated assassination attempt on his life by the past government using the military and in conjunction with foreign military intelligence, which he said failed woefully.

“Having failed in all the years of planned ambush, siege and infiltrations, the past government by the orders of its foreign masters decided to use the Zazzau Emirate Council, which in turn hired thugs to attack his residence in Gyellesu Area.”